With rising freight and labor costs, Maui Fresh International, a wholesaler and distributor of fruits and vegetables for local and national customers since 2004, is addressing how it is proactively responding to these industry challenges to provide buyers the best possible produce price.

The Southeast Produce Council announced the recipients of its newest scholarship program. The SEPC Fresh Chefs are Mya Campbell, Kristin Feliciano and Rebecca Martinez.

Each of these three recipients will receive one $1,500 scholarship toward their educational goals for the upcoming year. In addition to the scholarship funds, each recipient will also be invited to attend SEPC’s Southern Innovations conference & expo, Sept. 22–24.

SECAUCUS, NJ — Allegiance Retail Services LLC's Holiday Food Show has returned. After the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Holiday Food Show returned in full force Thursday, June 15, at its familiar venue, the Meadowlands Exposition Center, here.

And as before the pandemic, fresh produce was very well represented from vendors all over the country showcasing a wide variety of items.

Peppers, tomatoes and sweet corn — three top of the line items — are ready and waiting to be set up on aggressive displays in your produce department. Plan to promote these items by choosing key locations and go all out to capture some meaningful sales volume. Expand space and set up a waterfall spillover onto the original boxes for an appealing presentation.

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, produce professionals have talked about ever-increasing strong sales as people cooked at home more and were anxious to incorporate healthy foods into their diets.

The re-opening of restaurants gave the industry a boost as well, but when talking about 2022, Jason Turek said sales have slowed down.

It has been dubbed the Great Resignation, and refers to the record number of Americans that have voluntarily quit their jobs in the past year.